Answering your questions: pros & cons about taxi apps

Research from Wheely shows that in London only 1.5 per cent of people book taxis via smartphone app. 74% of Londoners still favor phoning up a taxi firm and giving their details verbally despite the speed and convenience offered via apps.

Wheely co-founder Anton Chirkunov, said: “London likes to think of itself as a modern city but some of the habits of Londoners belong in the last century. Like their grandparents before them, 74% of Londoners will book a minicab over the phone, rather than use an app.”

It proves that the number of people using the apps in very small. Also, keep in mind that in the United States 60% of all spending on non-necessities is by those 60+ years old.

Therefore, for most of my clients introducing an app should not be a priority.

Who should it be a priority for? It should be a priority for you only if the majority of your clients are really young. Say, you are in a college town. Then an app is definitely the way to go.

The biggest advantage that apps offer is that once someone tries using an app, they stick to using the app in 98% of cases. The problem is that there are very few of these people.

Which is why you need focus on good old stuff, like developing your own unique selling proposition, training your dispatchers and providing them with scripts, making sure your taxis arrive on time, getting feedback from your customers and improving your service based on that.